A woman opens a parcel with noreturn address. Last month her only sondrove himself full tilt into a mapleand each day brings new drudgery from grief.What's this? A vase, an urn? Off with its lid.And so she's up to her wrists in her son'sAshes—not, by the way, like silt or dust,but nubble and grit, boneshards and half-burntburls of cartilage, cinders and nuggets.I ask you, ladies and gentlemenof the jury, to glove her hands with yoursand sieve the rubble of your belovedonly son, and also I ask you this:what simple task could the funeral homeperform to run this cruel film backwards,to lift this woman's hands from the cindersof her son and wind them back to her slacklap, and why did these merchants of balmfail to perform it? I believe you knowas well as I that it takes but paltryseconds more to write a return addressthan to endorse a check. It's easy to saywhat they ought to have done, and did not do.What's hard to know is how to value grief.It's very hard—but it's the very jobyou're here to do. You have to ask and ask,Could this grief have been prevented? until youanswer. Money may seem a crude measurein philosophy, though it seems exactenough for the grocer's and mortician'sbills.

A woman opens a parcel with noreturn address. Last month her only sondrove himself full tilt into a mapleand each day brings new drudgery from grief.What's this? A vase, an urn? Off with its lid.And so she's up to her wrists in her son'sAshes—not, by the way, like silt or dust,but nubble and grit, boneshards and half-burntburls of cartilage, cinders and nuggets.I ask you, ladies and gentlemenof the jury, to glove her hands with yoursand sieve the rubble of your belovedonly son, and also I ask you this:what simple task could the funeral homeperform to run this cruel film backwards,to lift this woman's hands from the cindersof her son and wind them back to her slacklap, and why did these merchants of balmfail to perform it? I believe you knowas well as I that it takes but paltryseconds more to write a return addressthan to endorse a check. It's easy to saywhat they ought to have done, and did not do.What's hard to know is how to value grief.It's very hard—but it's the very jobyou're here to do. You have to ask and ask,Could this grief have been prevented? until youanswer. Money may seem a crude measurein philosophy, though it seems exactenough for the grocer's and mortician'sbills. I beg your pardon, Your Honor.I meant but to say that a jury's dutyis to blame or not to blame, and if there'sfault there's got to be a reason for it,and so a price for reason. What's honorworth that's ladled like soup onto plates, allthe slosh that fits and then no more? Supposeyou pulled into a gas station and askedfor a full tank. "How far you gonna go?""Twelve miles east of Bozeman." "Then half a tankwill do." A freak mishap (golf course, four iron,lightning) is one thing, and preventableheartbreak another. This woman's bruised heartis evidence, ladies and gentlemenof the jury, and this plain brown paperwith no return address. If there's excusefor every harm, what use then is law?Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I askyou to vote against random pain, to votethat suffering has cause and thus has blame,to vote that our lives can be explained, andto vote compensation for my client.

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WILLIAM MATTHEWS

William Matthews, 1942–1997, was an acclaimed and prolific American poet and essayist. Two posthumous collections of his poetry have recently been released: Search Party: Collected Poems and After All: Last Poems. This poem is taken from the anthology Poetry of the Law, edited by David Kader and Michael Stanford, just out from the University of Iowa Press. It is the first serious collection of law-related poetry ever published in the U.S. and features 100 poems from the 1300s to the present.

Established in 1969 and housed in the historic Kuhl House, the oldest house still standing in Iowa City, the University of Iowa Press publishes scholarly books and a wide variety of titles that will appeal to general readers. As the only university press in the state, it is dedicated to preserving the literature, history, culture, wildlife, and natural areas of the region.